• Info sources

    Posted by Biochemist on June 18, 2018 at 4:10 am

    Hi All,
    Do you have any tips on where to go for accurate scientific knowledge and studies on various ingredients.  I’m not talking about specific Ingredients made by one supplier but more general ingredients eg a natural oil?
    in the absence of being able to pay for subscription to most journals and apart from google scholar,  has anyone got some tips on your go to trusted source (ie they use references to back claims)?
    -anyone used knowde? 
    @Perry
    Thanks!

    Dr Catherine Pratt replied 5 years, 9 months ago 6 Members · 9 Replies
  • 9 Replies
  • belassi

    Member
    June 18, 2018 at 4:24 am

    People make magical claims all the time, eg for Argan Oil, or Rosa Mosketa, or …. or …. it’s a fashion. If you can’t find it with Google it probably doesn’t exist.

  • Biochemist

    Member
    June 18, 2018 at 5:23 am

    ?exactly @belassi it amazes me how putting a simple blend of vegetable oils on your skin is suddenly an amazing anti ageing serum that is full of claims about smoothing wrinkles, promoting collagen synthesis (the list goes on). That’s why I’d like a trusted (few) resource(s) backed by science as my go to when researching ingredients to use in formulations. 

  • OldPerry

    Member
    June 18, 2018 at 12:49 pm

    Abstracts on Google Scholar is your best bet.

    I like Knowde.com for collecting information about raw materials but they essentially publish things they collect from suppliers.

    In truth, there is much less good information about the function of most ingredients than you might imagine. Most of the information that is published is the result of small studies with non-repeated or dubious conclusions. 

  • Biochemist

    Member
    June 18, 2018 at 2:08 pm

    Thanks @Perry that’s also been my experience thus far.

  • Doreen

    Member
    June 20, 2018 at 1:54 pm

    @Biochemist @Belassi
    Exactly. It’s amazing how much benefit people think they get from specific oils. Prickly pear oil for example, insanely expensive and therefore its powers must be magical, nearly divine, even more so than argan. IT’S JUST OILS for heaven’s sake, not a miracle drug. Just oils with a different fatty acid profile, a very low level of oil soluble vitamins and that’s about it.

  • Chemist77

    Member
    June 20, 2018 at 2:41 pm

    Subjectively speaking, I had this divine feeling of washing myself ASAP after trying few of these oils in my lab to know the feel.

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    July 13, 2018 at 3:19 pm

    @Biochemist go to a botanical ingredient online shop & use wiki for the INCI names as you must put the specific species on label

  • Biochemist

    Member
    July 13, 2018 at 4:32 pm

    Thanks @drcatherinepratt I’m all good for INCI names and ingredients lists.. I was after tips on people’s go to source(s) for reliable scientific sources / studies on ingredient efficacy 

  • Dr Catherine Pratt

    Member
    August 1, 2018 at 5:05 am

    @Biochemist yes you would have to subscribe to Science Direct. If you get anything free on google you usually get a paper from an Indian University.

Log in to reply.